Irena Sendlerowa photographed by Stach Antkowiak/Reporter/East News
Amidst the events commemorating the 68th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is the premiere performance of Ryszard Marek Groński's monodrama. "The Wall", directed by Maciej Wojtyszko, tells the story of Irena Sendlerowa, the heroic nurse who worked for the Council to Aid Jews during the World War II and rescued hundreds of Jewish children
Ewa Dąbrowska plays Irena Sendlerowa, a mother and guardian to hundreds of rescued children. Leading them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, providing them with the proper documents and families who could take care for them, Sendlerowa gave these young people the chance to survive the Holocaust.
The story of the heroic woman is told through a series of episodes that shed light on the overwhelming risk she undertook on a daily basis. In the face of death threats by both the German invaders as well as the local shmaltzovniks who blackmailed the Jews, Irena (alias Jolanta) carried out her mission.
The team behind the play explain the meaning behind the tribute:
She was silent for many years and did not expect any rewards or honours. Today she makes a come back to remind us that "he, who rescues one life, rescues the whole world" and she rescued so many worlds, believing they would be better than the one remembered.
Mur" / "The Wall, directed by the Maciej Wojtyszko, written by the writer, poet, satirist, publicist and a specialist on the history of the cabaret, a regular columnist of the Polityka weekly, Ryszard Marek Groński.
Premiere (on the Small Stage): April 12th, 2011, repeats April 19, 2011
On April 17, the theatre commemorates the start of the Warsaw Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto with a special performance of Pieśn o Zamordowanym Żydowskim Narodzie" / "Song of the Murdered Jewish Nation, written by Itzhak Katzenelson. Trapped in the Warsaw ghetto, Katzenelson continued to write, even when his wife and two younger sons were killed at Treblinka. Soon after Isaac and his eldest son, Tzvi were taken by the Germans at the camp in Vittel, France. There, the poet and playwright wrote several works, including Song of the Murdered Jewish Nation. The text was hidden in various places around the camp, which allowed it to survive until today. Yitzhak Katzenelson and his son were killed in the Auschwitz gas chamber on May 1, 1944. It remains a literary testimony to the massacre of European Jews, full of despair, hopelessness and sorrow. The performance at the Jewish Theatre is based on a selection of verses from the poem in both the original Yiddish and Polish.
The Estera Rachela and Ida Kamiński Jewish Theatre of Warsaw
12/16 Plac Grzybowski, 00-104 Warsaw
tel/fax: (22) 620 49 54
link*www.teatr-zydowski.art.pl*http://www.teatr-zydowski.art.pl****Source: press release